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WATERVILLE -- "A family get-together" near here on July 11 turned deadly when Paden Edward Frey, of Cogan Station, allegedly strangled a cousin, an off-duty police officer from Cumberland County, inside a hunting cabin, according to Lycoming Regional police.
Frey, 25, of 6793 Pleasant Valley Road, is accused of killing Michael Robert McGeehan, 44, who was a 12-year veteran with the Middlesex Township Police Department.
The strangulation took place at 7190 Dam Run Road in Cummings Township, where police and medical personnel were called to investigate a report of an unresponsive male about 2:40 a.m., according to an affidavit prepared by Detective Jordan Mahosky.
One of McGeehan's sons who was in the cabin called 911 to report that those present "had put him (his father) to sleep because he was so drunk," it was stated in the court document.
"We had to choke him out. I think they choked him out. I think that's how they did it," the son told the dispatcher.
When emergency medical personnel arrived on the scene, McGeehan was on his back on the front porch. "He was beyond life-saving efforts and pronounced dead at the scene," Mahosky said in the affidavit.
While he and other family members were on the porch, McGeehan "got aggressive," resulting in Frey and another male "holding him down," the affidavit stated. Frey is actually a cousin to McGeehan's wife, police said.
McGeehan had stated he wanted to go for a swim or go for a ride on a four-wheeler, Mahosky said he was told.
"McGeehan was extremely intoxicated" and those present "were trying to keep him safe by holding him down and not letting him do those things," investigators were told.
Frey allegedly "held his forearm against McGeehan's middle neck until he passed out," police were told.
Before passing out, McGeehan "was trying to fight this and was struggling to breathe," a struggle that "lasted 10 minutes or so," the affidavit stated. While Frey "was applying pressure to McGeehan's neck," another family member was "holding down his arm so that he couldn't get up," the court document stated.
Also present in the cabin was McGeehan's wife, Nicole, who said she saw most of what was going on "just prior" to her husband's death.
She told police that "Frey yelled at her to get away while he was laying on McGeehan, telling him he was "going to put him to sleep" if he didn't stop. "Nicole stated she begged Frey to get off him, but he wouldn't. Nicole then walked away to the other side of the porch where she could no longer see what was going on," Mahosky wrote in the affidavit.
Frey told police that he and another family member "had been fighting with McGeehan, trying to get him to go to sleep, and that McGeehan eventually laid down on the porch and fell asleep," the affidavit stated.
At the cabin, the Lycoming County Coroner's Office took possession of the body. An autopsy done on July 13 at the Lehigh Valley Hospital in Allentown revealed that McGeehan died of "manual strangulation by forearm compression of the neck," Mahosky said.
The off-duty officer's death was ruled a homicide. This information was just made public after Frey was arrested early Wednesday afternoon at his home.
Frey was arraigned before District Judge Denise Dieter on charges of murder of the third degree, strangulation, involuntary manslaughter and recklessly endangering another person. He was committed to the Lycoming County Prison on no bail.